saw American Made this weekend. Wasn't as good as Blow, but was entertaining and I thought Tom Cruise was good in this. I don't think I have liked a Tom Cruise movie or even him for that matter since the 90's save for Collateral and maybe a mission Impossible or two.

...Dip a ladle for a taste of her creation...& she knew that what she made...would be the Finest in the Nation....

Phinst wrote:I don't think I have liked a Tom Cruise movie or even him for that matter since the 90's save for Collateral and maybe a mission Impossible or two.

I'm right there with you, he kind of fell off for me when his public persona became that of a completely insane person. I didn't like Minority Report or the Mission Impossible movies so that didn't help. I did however, love Edge of Tomorrow from a few years back.

On a flight last week I watched Lost City of Z. It was good but not great IMO.

I, Tonya is a very entertaining movie. I thought they might have made the characters overly ridiculous... then they showed the interviews with the actual people. Dear lord, what a bunch of clowns. If you only watch one figure skating biopic this year, make it I, Tonya.

Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.~4~

Major Spoilers, but the movie has been out for 35 years, so I'm sure the statute of limitations has expired.

I saw this movie 10 - 12 years ago, and loved it, but I recently watched it again, and came to the conclusion that it is not really a good movie. It's enjoyable as schlocky horror goes, but it is Schlock.

The movie attempted to depict a group of researchers giving in to their paranoia, but where other movies and TV shows have done this incredibly well, The Thing misses. This is because the characters were never shown to be collegial. The first thing we see them do is kill a guy, and then they yell at each other for the rest of the movie. I never got the sense that they trusted each other to begin with. There was no real descent.

Another way this movie failed, was by overdoing it on the effects. If Alien was supposed to be Jaws in space, then The Thing was supposed to be Jaws in Antarctica. Jaws worked largely because the shark was seldom on screen*. This let the viewers use their own imaginations to scare themselves. In The Thing, the audience was treated to full, occasionally comical shots of the creature. I loved the effects, but they were overdone for this type of horror. So since they botched building suspense throughout the course of the movie, the ending - which was supposed to be unsettling, with the viewers asking themselves: "Who is the creature?" - felt like Hooper and Brody paddling back to shore.

Despite all of its flaws, it is still entertaining. What I am getting at is, don't watch it the same way you would watch Alien (which is really what this movie wanted to be); watch it the way you would watch The Blob (1958) or Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

* Jaws worked for many, many reasons. This is just referring to the suspense.

Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.~4~

The first 10 minutes with the screaming kids really put me off at first, but I'd been reassured many many times that I would really like it, and before long I was engrossed from then on in. The bleakness of the story mixed with the pastel bright colours felt really trippy to my sensibilities. That was the first thing I said the minute the movie was over, and about three times during it. So bright, but so bleak in a lovingly uber-dysfunctional kind of way at the same time. I really liked it.

We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think its forever - Carl Sagan

The first 10 minutes with the screaming kids really put me off at first, but I'd been reassured many many times that I would really like it, and before long I was engrossed from then on in. The bleakness of the story mixed with the pastel bright colours felt really trippy to my sensibilities. That was the first thing I said the minute the movie was over, and about three times during it. So bright, but so bleak in a lovingly uber-dysfunctional kind of way at the same time. I really liked it.

Those are actual places, too. I think Disney once sued to try to get them to change their name. Also that very final scene was guerilla film making, as Disney never allows professional video in this park.

It rained nearly every second of last weekend, so I went to two movies.

Deadpool 2 was great. It was very funny and touching at times. Two new characters kind of steal the show. If you liked the first Deadpool, you will probably like this one too.

Infinity War was good. (I get that I just called Deadpool "great," but I have to grade these two differently. Infinity War wants you to take the movie seriously, Deadpool doesn't) The MCU has made 18 movies most of them are good to very good, and this one falls somewhere between good and very good. The studio hyped this movie for nearly a decade, so you go in knowing that they aren't going to flat-out miss. No movie is perfect, and this is no exception, but it is still good to very good. The thing is, in order to know what is going on you have to have seen about 14 other movies.

Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.~4~

The thing is, in order to know what is going on you have to have seen about 14 other movies.

I doubt it. Bad guys collecting macguffin's to eventually endanger the universe and a bunch of dorks in outfits have to stop him. I don't need to see 15 movies to understand that. What is funny is how the MCU has convinced people that these movies are somehow deeper than other action movies like Fast and the Furious and it's just not true.

I do want to see the next Deadpool so it's nice seeing good reviews. It's nice to see a superhero movie that doesn't take itself too seriously.

I saw True Romance over the weekend which is the first screenplay by Tarantino though he didn't direct it. The plot isn't too deep but it was enjoyable. Surprised at the amount of star power, especially with some big names who are only in there for a few scenes as well as some up-and-comers like Brad Pitt (as dude on the couch) and Gandolfini in some early roles. Good stuff.

El Bastarde wrote:The thing is, in order to know what is going on you have to have seen about 14 other movies.

I doubt it. Bad guys collecting macguffin's to eventually endanger the universe and a bunch of dorks in outfits have to stop him. I don't need to see 15 movies to understand that. What is funny is how the MCU has convinced people that these movies are somehow deeper than other action movies like Fast and the Furious and it's just not true.

Of course you are absolutely correct. It is far from complicated. A person could jump in at this point and have a pretty solid grasp of what is happening. I was referring more to "Who's that? What's that? Why does he have that? What did he mean when he said that?" kinda stuff. It is 100% Macguffins and dorks.

Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.~4~

I was referring more to "Who's that? What's that? Why does he have that? What did he mean when he said that?" kinda stuff.

Yeah, these are definitely dork questions that only nerds who love a product would say...it's why we get pointless prequels to explain a vague reference to the Kessel Run from 30 years ago. Most people will watch a Marvel movie and say "well I guess he can fly" or "I guess she sends out blasts of some kind" and they leave it at that...no backstory needed. The dork community definitely asks far too many questions of movies these days.

I saw Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom on Friday night, and boy am I glad I did.

It is among the silliest movies I have ever seen. I was relieved that I wasn't the only one laughing at the "wait a minute...what?!" moments, but there were other times where I had to stifle my laughter. The first half of the movie is boilerplate Jurassic Park stuff, but just when you think the franchise has stalled out, it turns into the single greatest episode of Scooby Doo I have ever seen.

If you like silly schlock, this movie is for you. None of it makes sense, there are no character arcs, and it doesn't give even the slightest shit about continuity. Oddly enough, the camerawork is shockingly good.

As a movie, it is probably a 2 star flick, but as an enjoyable movie theater experience, I give it 5 stars. It is probably my second favorite installment in the lumbering dinosaur that is the Jurassic Park franchise.

Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.~4~